1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a hose storage apparatus, and more particularly, to a hose storage apparatus having an accommodating mount and a flexible hose, such that the flexible hose is conveniently pulled out from the accommodating mount for use and retracted automatically to the accommodating mount, in order to avoid trouble and inconvenience for coiling/uncoiling the hose.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many of European and American houses with yards have flowerbeds or gardens. The flowers and plants in these flowerbeds and gardens are maintained by constant watering to provide sufficient moisture for plant life and growth. For a simple flowerbed, plants may be watered with a simple sprinkler supplied by a short, fixed hose. But for a large garden setting, large-scale watering is usually required using a long hose to ensure all plants in the garden have sufficient water.
Typically, while the hose is used to carry out watering, the hose can tangle easily when it is uncoiled and pulled out to a long distance. As the hose is extended out, it can tangle into knots, making it difficult to pull the hose to a distance for watering. Furthermore, the hose can bind so as to restrict water flow in the hose, similarly making watering at a distance difficult. So, it is not convenient to carry out watering using the conventional hose, especially for watering a large garden. 
After watering is completed, the long hose usually has to be carefully coiled into a coil for storage. However, careless coiling of the hose easily results in tangling when the hose is later uncoiled to be used again. Therefore, it is inconvenient to carry out watering using the hose, and improvements are needed to facilitate better coiling/uncoiling of the hose.
To resolve the inconvenience for coiling and uncoiling the hose, a conventional hose reel 6 has been proposed as shown in FIG. 6 for coiling/uncoiling the hose 5. The conventional hose reel 6 has a reel body 61 that is formed with a rotatable coiling barrel 62 thereon. On one side of the coiling barrel 62, a crank handle 63 or a mechanism (not shown) for rotating the coiling barrel 62 is further formed co-axial to the coiling barrel 62. The hose 5 has one end fixed to the coiling barrel 62, such that the hose is coiled on the coiling barrel 62 by rotating the coiling barrel 62 with the crank handle 63. And the hose 5 is uncoiled by simply pulling out the hose 5 from the coiling barrel 62, making it convenient to water the garden without the trouble associated with directly pulling the hose 5. It is noted that the conventional hose reel 6 described above is also disclosed in several U.S. patents, including U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,657,789, 5,704,384, 5,797,424, 5,901,730, and 5,988,552.
Although the hose 5 is coiled/uncoiled conveniently with the hose reel 6, the hose reel 6 is a coiling mechanism having a complex structure. So, cost for the hose reel 6 is usually high for the typical consumers.
Also, as the coiling barrel 62 is rotated with the hand-held crank handle 63 for coiling the hose 5, a large amount of manual labor is expended to coil a long hose 5. Another mechanism (not shown) that enables rotation of the coiling barrel 62 may be included to substitute for the manual coiling structure. However, an additional  mechanism means the entire structure of the hose reel 6 is made more complex than a simplified structure having simply the crank handle 63. Accordingly, the cost for fabricating the hose reel 6 with a crank handle 63 and the additional mechanism is further increased, making such a hose reel structure less attractive to the general consumer.
As shown in FIG. 7, a hose rack 7 for easy coiling/uncoiling of the hose 5 is further disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,059,215, while a similar structure is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,814. The hose rack 7 is a metal rack body, which is directly attached to a wall or post, so that the hose 5 can be directly coiled on the hose rack 7.
However, the hose 5 has to be held by the user's hand and wrapped around the hose rack 7. Also, the hose 5 is made of soft material, so it is difficult to coil the hose 5 evenly on the hose rack 7 after the hose 5 is wrapped around the hose rack 7. Furthermore, if the hose 5 needs to be used again, it has to be uncoiled loop by loop from the rack. When the hose 5 is uncoiled, it is very likely to cause twisting of the hose 5 into a knot. Therefore, it is inconvenient to uncoil the hose 5 as it easily tangles. As a result, the above-mentioned drawbacks are not adequately resolved and require further improvements.